"On June 4, border defense units of the Western Military District and border guards of the Russian Federal Security Service detected an attempt by a sabotage and reconnaissance group of Ukrainian terrorists to cross a river near the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, in the Belgorod Region," it said.
"The enemy was hit by artillery fire. The enemy was dispersed and pulled back," the ministry added.
Earlier in the day, the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that fighting was underway between Russian forces and a Ukrainian sabotage group in the western Russian village of Novaya Tavolzhanka in the Belgorod Region.
"They entered as a sabotage and intelligence-gathering group. A battle is underway in Novaya Tavolzhanka. I hope they will all be eliminated," Gladkov said in a video address on social media.
Gladkov said Ukrainian saboteurs had offered a swap for people they captured during the incursion. He said he feared that prisoners had been killed but agreed to meet for talks at a checkpoint in the Russian town of Shebekino, bordering Ukraine’s Khrarkov region.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that Russian troops had repelled three Ukrainian cross-border attacks near Shebekino in Belgorod Region. A dormitory in Shebekino was set alight and an administrative budding was damaged in the attacks, local authorities said.